11.10 - proprietary drivers for video are just fine, but overheats(T=60-70 C)

12.04 - proprietary drivers for video are just fine, but overheats(T=60-70 C)

for 11.* & 12.04 - when just installed - temperature is almost normal(idle t=55-60, when watching video's t=60-65 C).

After about 1-2 days(installed: Chromium browser, Mozilla Thunderbird, PCSX-R, qBittorrent, Skype, SMPlayer.) the temperature went up till: idle t=65-70C, working t=70-80C(Note-the temperature goes up after 1-5 minutes after booting computer, and i don't start such programs, as qbittorrent, Skype, SMPlayer, PCSX-r etc).

Tried to re-install video drivers, no luck, temperatures are all the same: idle t=65-70C, working t=70-80C(also in idle found, that some of the screenlets are lagging, & videos have mistiming glitches, which could be solved only by restarting the application).
P.S.: Needless to say, that laptop is always in my hands,or on table, & there is always 1-2 inches gap between bottom of laptop, & any surfaces.

P.P.S.: I have Windows 7 dual boot on this laptop & temperatures in Windows are MUCH different(idle= 45-55 C, working= 60-65C)

2 Answers
2

I searched with your laptop model in Internet. Couldn't find a product page in acer. But the driver page points that this model has nvidia optimus enabled. If your system has duel graphics card and optimus enabled you need to turn off the discrete graphics card. Otherwise both are enabled and lead to high temperature.

Instruction for installing Bumblebee to turn off discrete GPU and enable only when required

Type the following in terminal,

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
then
sudo apt-get update

If you are on Ubuntu 11.04 or older and want newer drivers (recommended) than the ones available in the official repos, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

To install Bumblebee using the proprietary nvidia driver:

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia

Run following

sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee $USER

Reboot.

If you just want to disable nvidia card, no need to learn followings

Usage Instruction :

To run a program with nvidia card, use optirun command prefixed in terminal.
Like to run glxspheres with nvidia card type

May be this isnt the right solution for you, but it happened to me similarly. Although, the problem due to my cooling system problem, it was too dirty. I vacuum cleaned the ventilation and the heating problem was gone :O surprisingly. You might wanna tried that first!